Reform UK’s Nigel Farage at the party’s press conference on illegal immigration at Oxford Airport © Guy Bell
Nigel Farage held the last press conference in his ‘crime campaign’, in which he set out his ‘Operation Restoring Justice’ plan that he claims would lead to the mass deportation of up to 600,000 asylum seekers if Reform UK were to be elected to power. The plan involves taking the UK out of the ECHR and building detention infrastructure, as well making £2bn available to offer payments or aid to countries like Afghanistan to take back migrants. At a press conference on Wednesday in Edinburgh, Farage denied claims of hypocrisy when questioned about his stance on protecting women’s safety in the UK, despite supporting the deportation of women and girls to countries with limited protections for their rights.
Pressure is mounting on Keir Starmer as he faces growing calls to tackle Farage and his rhetoric that Britain is “not far away from major civil disorder”. Although Starmer’s strategy has been to push that the Government is fixing the backlogs and stopping small boat arrivals, voices on the Left are pressing the Prime Minister to scrutinise Farage’s immigration policies, and to tell the ‘truth’ about the role that Brexit has played in causing the small boat crisis. On Friday afternoon, the Court of Appeal overturned a temporary injunction granted to Epping Forest District Council that would have blocked asylum seekers from being housed at the Bell Hotel in Epping. The judgement will have come as a huge relief to the Home Office, who are facing increasing pressure to get the problem of small boat migrants urgently under control - although now they await the backlash…
$1,404 billion – spent on defence by NATO in 2025, of which $845bn was from the US.
£40,000 – reportedly avoided in stamp duty on Angela Rayner’s Hove property, after she allegedly declared it to be her primary residence.
3 – aides to the PM replaced since the election, as 10 Downing Street Principle Private Secretary Nini Pandit is set to leave her role.
14% – increase in asylum claims in 12 months, with 111,000 applications in the year to June 2025.
£5.1bn – to be added to the UK economy every year by the UK-EU SPS agreement.
1 – Reform MSP in the Scottish Parliament, following Graham Simpson’s defection from the Scottish Conservatives (their second defection this month).
In a speech aptly timed just a day after Farage’s, EU Relations Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds delivered a speech providing an update on the UK-EU relationship, which he used to attack the Reform UK leader and said that British businesses would suffer from their policies and “take Britain backwards”. NTS also confirmed the Government would secure a food and agriculture deal by 2027.
Politicos in Westminster are getting excited, as an early September reshuffle in on the cards. But before anybody gets too excited, it’s likely to only be a reshuffle of the more junior Ministerial roles and maybe some of the PM’s advisers. The rumours have spread throughout August, as there is still no replacement for Rushanara Ali after her resignation as Homelessness Minister, and the moving of Nin Pandit from the PM’s Principal Private Secretary to now lead on policy delivery.
One thing not on the cards anytime soon is a King’s Speech, as the Government confirmed the current session of Parliament will last until the Spring of 2026. Leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell said the “bumper” session is to allow the Government to deliver on its ‘Plan for Change’.
Taking a break from Westminster are the Defence Secretary and Trade Policy Minister, who both visited Japan this week, with Douglas Alexander also travelling to South Korea. The agenda included speeches at the Pacific Future Forum, with Alexander also meeting the Korean Trade Minister to progress FTA talks.
Also on the diplomatic circuit this week was Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer who became the second minister to visit Syria since the fall of Assad. He met with the Syrian Foreign and Justice Ministers, discussing progress on the political transition and the next steps for security and accountability.
The British Council in Ukraine was damaged by Russian attacks on Kyiv this week, with the UK summoning the Russian Ambassador as a result of the strikes. The FCDO condemned the ‘abhorrent strikes’, which also damaged the EU’s Diplomatic Mission and killed at least 23 people.
More measures are being taken to crack down on crime, as plans to ban criminals from pubs, concerts and sports matches, as well as travel bans and restriction zones, have been put forward by the Government. New statutory guidance and a legal definition of honour-based abuse will also be introduced to help tackle those offences.
A chickenpox vaccination programme will launch in England from January 2026, expected to protect around 500,000 children each year. GP practices will offer eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella.
Another week, another defection, as Graham Simpson defected from the Scottish Conservatives to Reform UK. Simpson said it wouldn’t be a surprise to his now former colleagues, as they had been “touting [his] name as a potential defector for months”.
And finally, the Scottish Green Party has two new co-leaders, with Gillian Mackay and Ross Greer coming out as the top two candidates. Both are MSPs, and will replace Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie who are the current co-leaders.
Reform UK is now viewed as the most ‘favourable’ party, according to Ipsos’ research, which shows that 34% of Britain’s have a positive view of the party. In grim reading for mainstream parties, this compares to 30% for the Greens, 25% for Labour and the Lib Dems, 21% for the Tories. 17% also have a positive view of Jeremy Corbyn’s soon-to-be-named party. However, over half of respondents are not confident that any of the parties have a good long-term economic plan, which may reflect the fact that…
…82% of Britons consider the UK to be in a bad state, according to YouGov’s polling. 75% believe it is in a worse place now than it was 10 years ago, and 60% expect it to deteriorate further over the next year.
20% of public affairs professionals plan to attend Reform UK’s conference this year, Opinium’s polling has found, as businesses consider whether to engage with the insurgent party. This leaves it lagging just behind the Conservative Party conference, at 24%, but ahead of the Lib Dem conference, which just 8% plan to attend. Unsurprisingly, Labour’s conference attendance tops the list with 48%, up from 42% last year.
The special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system needs to be ‘radically overhauled’, according to Police Exchange’s report. It found that 1 in 5 children in England are now reported to have SEND and that since 2015 Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which are designed for children with the most severe needs, have increased by 83%. It recommended that EHCPs be reserved for students in special schools, and that councils and professionals need to be ‘empowered to manage budgets and resources.’
August hasn’t been a great look for ministers in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government… Just three weeks ago the Minister for Homelessness, Rushanara Ali, resigned after it was reported she had evicted tenants in a property she owned, before hiking the rent by more than 20%. And this week it has been reported that the Housing Secretary Angela Rayner avoided paying £40,000 in Stamp Duty by changing the deeds on her house in her Greater Manchester constituency and classifying a new flat near Brighton (over 230 miles from her constituency and 50 miles from Westminster) as her new “main” home. She has also been accused of subsequently declaring her new main home as her second home for council tax purposes. A government spokesperson has been keen to stress that the Deputy Prime Minister has “paid the correct duty owed on the purchase, entirely properly and in line with all relevant requirements”; but judging by how this story is running… it’s not one that’s going to go away quickly…
Democracy is a thing of beauty… and one Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana have experienced this week in the race to find a name for their new party (working title: Your Party). Don’t tell us the people of Britain are apathetic, as the response online tells us otherwise… it’s safe to say however that many of the suggestions are unlikely to make it through the vetting process…
